(Guardian-UK) Tony Blair - The events that led to the Egyptian army's removal of President Mohamed Morsi confronted the military with a simple choice: intervention or chaos. The Muslim Brotherhood was unable to shift from being an opposition movement to being a government. The economy is tanking. Ordinary law and order has virtually disappeared. What is happening in Egypt is the latest example of the interplay, visible the world over, between democracy, protest and government efficacy. Democratic government doesn't on its own mean effective government. Today, efficacy is the challenge. When governments don't deliver, people protest. They don't want to wait for an election. In Egypt, the government's problems were compounded by resentment at the ideology and intolerance of the Muslim Brotherhood. People felt that the Brotherhood was steadily imposing its own doctrines on everyday life. Across the Middle East, for the first time, there is open debate about the role of religion in politics. Despite the Muslim Brotherhood's superior organization, there is probably a majority for an intrinsically secular approach to government in the region. People are starting to realize that democracy only works as a pluralistic concept where faiths are respected and where religion has a voice, not a veto. The writer is the Special Envoy for the Middle East Quartet.
2013-07-08 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive